Snapchat: From Naked Pics to Selling Luxury Homes

How listing agents show off their best assets

When Victor Alia, a broker at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, was selling a $2.8 million condo on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, an international buyer expressed interest, but wanted to get a feel for the place despite being out of the country. Mr. Alia’s solution? Snapchat.

“We took detailed videos of the apartment to show him what it felt like on the inside. He then wanted to see how high the apartment was off the ground floor, so I proceeded to have my assistant go outside to the street and take a Snapchat of me waving from the window,” Mr. Alia said.

“I then used the drawing tools to circle me waving in the window so it was clear which window was our listing and to show exactly how high off the ground we were. It worked and we had the deal in contract one week later.”

Just a few years ago the social media app was hitting the headlines around the world amid concerns that teenagers were using it to send naked selfies that self-destructed within one to 10 seconds. But a lot has changed since Snapchat caught on, and companies are flocking to the app, increasingly viewing it as a marketing tool.

In particular, they are big fans of its videos, which have become a much more important part of Snapchat’s core business. Users were watching 10 billion videos a day on the app in April, two billion higher than in February, according to Bloomberg.

And the real estate industry, who once relied on just a ‘for sale’ sign in the front yard to attract attention to a particular property, is no exception. Mr. Alia is just one of many luxury brokers in the U.S. who have started to use Snapchat, which has reportedly has 150 million daily users.

In particular, he uses it to target international buyers and many of his wealthy New York clients who spend a large chunk of the summer at their homes in the Hamptons, but still want to see what opportunities there are in Manhattan.

He’ll either upload videos to his ‘Snapchat story’ which lasts 24 hours and can be viewed by a broader audience, or make several specific pictures or videos for certain clients and add text and drawings, pointing out specific features of the properties.

As for his older clients, who have never heard of Snapchat let alone know how to use it, Mr. Alia can still make videos on Snapchat and then send them in a text message.

Snapchat is key to the marketing strategy

Steve Halpern, another New York-based listing agent who works for Compass, only started using Snapchat a month ago, but now considers it a core part of his marketing strategy: “It’s actually proven to be quite effective, which I was surprised by. I’ve actually received inquiries on Snapchat from other brokers who are using it.”

He is selling a $24.5 million condo in the tony Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park in Manhattan, but his wealthy clients have an impressive art collection and don’t want any photos of the interiors to be published. That’s pretty tricky when you’re an agent trying to sell a home, so Mr. Halpern has had to be inventive.

He uses Snapchat videos to give potential buyers more of a feeling of the four-bedroom apartment in Columbus Circle, such as showing motorized blackout shades opening out to impressive views of the park.

A view of Central Park from the condo in the Time Warner Center.Compass

“This is a fleeting moment so I’m able to give hints that they’re not sensitive about,” Mr. Halpern said. “I’m able to fill in with videos and offer more of a fun side. On Instagram and Facebook you’re creating an expert image because that’s there forever, but with Snapchat it’s gone soon.”

Snapchat as an “extension” of Facebook

For many, Facebook is still considered the most essential form of social media for agents — a recent survey by Inman, an industry portal, found that 72.73% of respondents said Facebook was most important. However, some agents are starting to view Snapchat as an extension of Facebook and Instagram, the photo sharing app that is also extremely popular among brokers.

“It creates a consistent touch point for clients to keep up-to-date with us,” said Michael Cantwell, chief marketing officer at Bespoke Real Estate, a Hamptons-based real estate brokerage.“We usually promote on Instagram that we’re going to host an open house, and then Snapchat the event. It’s an additional engagement tool. It keeps people up to date and gives people a senses of who we are.”

Like many others, the agency also uses it to promote a certain lifestyle. In fact, a simple Snapchat video of Cody Vichinsky, one of the founders of Bespoke, playing golf at the Playa Grande Golf Course in the Dominican Republic led to the potential sale of a property in the Amanera Resort.

“After hearing where he was and that there was the opportunity to purchase a property at this resort, I asked him to walk me through its main features,” the client, who wished to remain anonymous, told Mansion Global.

“I felt like I got to see it through someone else’s eyes and I now have a better understanding of the property than just photos or video because it was real time,” the client said “If it wasn’t for Snapchat I may have never taken the time to notice, let alone consider it. I’m now planning to fly down after the summer with an intent to purchase.“